Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conferene with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, October 22, 2025. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
Vice president pushes diplomacy while avoiding direct criticism of Trump.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Vice President JD Vance has privately accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being “wrong on everything” concerning the Iran war, according to an Axios report, as he presses President Donald Trump to pursue diplomacy rather than resume military strikes against Tehran.
The reported criticism, published Nov. 4, followed Republican losses in both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Vance subsequently blamed the conflict for the party’s defeat.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote Wednesday on X.
Natan Sachs, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital that Vance’s disagreements with Netanyahu could help distinguish his political position from Trump’s ahead of a possible 2028 presidential campaign.
“Low-level hostility between Vance and Netanyahu is beneficial for Vance,” Sachs said.
“He is breaking with the policy of President Trump, although he’s doing so by criticizing Netanyahu, never Trump.”
According to reports, Vance has joined senior administration officials advocating negotiations with Iran.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, urged Trump to renew attacks before the midterms, although the president declined after endorsing Netanyahu’s re-election campaign.
Sachs identified Netanyahu’s proposal to overthrow Iran’s government as a particular source of disagreement.
He cited skepticism among Israeli opposition leaders about whether airstrikes could achieve regime change.
“You may strengthen the regime.”
Vance previously declined to endorse Netanyahu’s re-election bid and criticized Israeli officials who opposed Trump’s diplomatic efforts, Fox News Digital reported.
His involvement in negotiations has included a letter sent last month through Qatari intermediaries to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Axios reported that the message proposed renewed talks addressing Iran’s nuclear program as a condition for avoiding further American strikes.
Rezaei acknowledged receiving it but had not responded. A US official said Trump supported the initiative.
Vance also participated in an earlier memorandum of understanding with Iran.
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The two countries have also held joint training exercises between their militaries.